Living the Story

Yesterday's post was a little rushed - and it's not looking much better for today! What I need is a devotional time, so that's what I'll do - you're simple invited to listen in.

I'm starting with a scripture - God's word always helps me to "center" spiritually. The following are the first few verses from Psalm 19, and this morning they seem to be reaffirming some of the connectedness I felt at the camp yesterday, on the shores of Lake Griffin, in the middle of all the enthusiasm of hundreds of teens unabashedly excited about their faith.

• The heavens keep telling the wonders of God, and the skies declare what he has done. Each day informs the following day; each night announces to the next.They don't speak a word, and there is never the sound of a voice. Yet their message reaches all the earth, and it travels around the world...

It's not just that there are no words necessary when we allow creation to give testimony to the Creator - it's more that there are no words adequate. And I can't help but feel what story I tell when people take their eyes off "the heavens" and interact with me?

We all tell a story. We all live a story. We don't have to speak a word... yet our message travels around the world.

I read in the newspaper this morning that the homicide rate in Tampa has jumped 135% this year. That means that there is a lot of desperation out there, a lot of pain and a lot of brokenness. And I'm wondering if there's much about the way that I "Live my faith out loud" that offers anything at all in terms of hope, or answers, or healing?

This is where my devotional is going this morning; my time thinking about God, God's word, and my response to the presence of the Holy. My thoughts are not so much self-evaluative, or self-judgmental, as they are self-imaginative. I'm allowing God's truth and my imagination to work together in preparing me for this day...

... It's a busy day; there's a lot to be done and written and said. And I'm wondering - aloud - what message the way I live my story will proclaim. I say it's a message of promise and of redemption. That's what I say... But what will the world hear?

PRAYER: Lord of creation, I pray that you will speak clearly through my life today, and that - in some small way - my story will "keep telling the wonders of God". Amen

Love and blessings - always - DEREK